Penelope "Penny" Hume (née Widmore) is the wife of Desmond Hume, the daughter of Charles Widmore, and half-sister of Daniel Faraday. Before he became stranded on the island, Penny was the long time girlfriend of Desmond. However, due to Desmond's fear of commitment, they stopped seeing each other. After Desmond went missing in 2001, Penny began searching for him hoping he was still alive. Due to a brief interaction with Charlie Pace, she knew there were survivors of the crash of OceanicFlight 815. Thanks to a phone conversation with Desmond, she was able to track his location to the area near the Island, aboard the Searcher. There, she picked up a lifeboat containing the Oceanic Six, as well as Frank Lapidus and her long-lost love, Desmond. After the rescue of the Oceanic Six, Penelope married Desmond and they had a child together, Charlie Hume.

In the flash-sideways, she and Desmond reunited. She later moved on with him and the rest of his friends from the island.

Contents

Before Desmond's disappearance

1994-1996 (Season 3)

In 1994, Penelope met Desmond at a monastery in Scotland, where Desmond had lived as a novice, but had recently been 'fired' from the order. Penny arrived at the monastery to pick up a shipment of Moriah Wine purchased by her father. Upon meeting Desmond, she convinced him to travel with her to Carlisle to deliver the wine. ("Catch-22")

Penny and Desmond soon fell in love and they began a relationship. She eventually moved into his flat, because he was apparently too proud to move into her larger one. After she moved in, Desmond met with her father. He was offered a job in the administrative department (which Desmond refused) at the Widmore Corporation, but was denied Mr. Widmore's blessing to marry Penny. Penny decided they should celebrate, because she was pleased he was "spared the miserable existence under the employ of Widmore Industries", and was unaware of Desmond's request for marital blessing. ("Flashes Before Your Eyes")

Desmond still planned to propose to Penny despite her father's refusal to give his blessings, but suddenly changed his mind after a street vendor took a photograph of the couple that Desmond could not afford. He felt unworthy of Penny and unable to properly care for her, telling her that she deserved better. During the split up, Penelope called him a coward - ending their relationship on bad terms. ("Flashes Before Your Eyes")

1996-2001

A short time after, Desmond called Penny claiming he was in trouble and needed help. She said she was trying to get over him, had moved to a new place, and did not want to speak to him. She then changed her phone number. However, Desmond managed to obtain Penny's new address from her father because he was convinced Penny would tell Desmond herself that she did not want to see him anymore. He later came to Penny, begging to speak with her. She agreed to see him. Desmond explained that all he wanted was her new phone number, and he would not call her until Christmas Eve eight years in the future. Confused and hurt, she reluctantly gave him the number, 79460893, and forced him out of the apartment. ("The Constant")

Despite the breakup and Desmond's strange behavior, Penelope still loved him and never gave up on him. She placed a love letter in Desmond's copy of Our Mutual Friend before he was sent to military prison for undisclosed reasons. However, he wouldn't find it until much later, after the accidental death of Kelvin, roughly three years after he shipwrecked on the Island. While Desmond was in prison, he wrote many letters to Penelope; however, her father had intercepted all of these letters before they reached her. As a result, according to her father, she got over Desmond and became engaged to someone else. ("Live Together, Die Alone, Part 1")

Her father's version of the situation was called into question when Penny tracked him down in the U.S. She asked him why he never wrote to her, and whether he ever had a chance to read his beloved book. When Desmond asked how she found him, she replied that "with enough money and determination, you can find anyone". Desmond informed her that her father told him about her engagement, which she did not deny and only replied they had not yet set a wedding date. When Desmond affirmed he would be back in a year, she responded, "what if you were back right now?" Desmond ended the conversation by telling her emphatically that he'd be back in a year after he won her father's boat race to get his honor back. ("Live Together, Die Alone, Part 1")

After Desmond's disappearance

Soon after Desmond crashed on the island, Penny began searching for him. At some point, she managed to learn about the island, but the extent of her knowledge, and where it came from, is unknown. ("The Constant")

Day 67 (Season 2)

Three years after Desmond's disappearance, there was a discharge and detection of an electromagnetic anomaly which caught the attention of two Portuguese-speaking men at the listening station. Penny was notified by telephone at 3:05 a.m., her local time, that they "found it." The callers referred to her as "Miss Widmore", indicating she was not married. On her nightstand was a similar photograph of her and Desmond as the one that Desmond carried. ("Live Together, Die Alone, Part 1")

After Charlie turned off the signal jam at The Looking Glass, a button lit up telling Charlie there was an incoming transmission. He pressed the button, and Penny appeared on-screen. Her response to Charlie's question if she was "on the boat" was "What boat?" When Charlie clarified and mentioned Naomi, Penny seemed confused and replied, "I am not on a boat; who, who's Naomi?" As she asked how he got this frequency, she heard Charlie shout for Desmond. Penny smiled as Charlie assured her that Desmond was fine. However, Charlie was interrupted by Mikhail, the man who was presumably killed by Desmond before Charlie entered the transmission room. Mikhail, who had escaped into the ocean, was floating outside the window and armed with a grenade by the window of the room Charlie was currently inside. The window shattered due to the explosion and the Looking Glass began to flood. Charlie, sacrificing his own life, shut the airtight door to stop the flooding. Desmond shouted Penny's name as the door closed, but it was uncertain if Penny heard him. Charlie assumed Naomi had been lying about Penny hiring her company. So before he drowned, he wrote a message on his hand for Desmond, "Not Penny's boat". ("Through the Looking Glass, Part 1")

Days 94-108 (Season 4)

Before succumbing to time-flash sickness, the freighter's communications officer, George Minkowski, told Desmond that he had been instructed to ignore frequent radio transmissions received from Penny, in search of Desmond.

On Christmas Eve 2004, Desmond, while on the freighter, phoned Penny at her London flat, as she stood in front of a Christmas tree. She was ecstatic to hear from him, and relieved that his eight-year old prophecy had come true. She tried to tell him she knew about the island, and she vowed she would find him. But their connection was garbled and the full message wasn't understood by Desmond. They professed their love for each other just before the rigged phone on Desmond's end ran out of battery power. ("The Constant")

Due to that phone call, Penny was able to trace it to an area in the South Pacific where the Island was before it was moved. Exactly one week after the phone call, early on the morning of December 31, 2004, her ship the Searcher came upon a lifeboat. A crew member on the Searcher spotted the lifeboat, and shouted "Miss Widmore!" Penny was on the upper section deck. They rescued from the lifeboat, Jack, Kate, Sayid, Aaron, Hurley, Sun, Frank, and Desmond, with whom she was finally reunited. ("There's No Place Like Home, Part 2")

After the rescue

During the following week after the rescue, the Oceanic Six, along with Penny, Desmond, and Frank, built a cover story for the 108 days the survivors spent on the Island. Hurley, who objected to the idea of lying, questioned whether or not Penny could call off her father, who staged the fake wreckage of flight 815. Penny claimed that "there's no calling off" her father. ("The Lie")

After a week, Penny helped send the Oceanic Six off to the island on Sumba, where their cover story would begin. She showed signs of affection for baby Aaron, whom she handed to Kate before their departure. Desmond elected to stay with Penny on her boat, along with Frank. ("There's No Place Like Home, Part 2")

At some point after the rescue, Desmond and Penny were married, as evidenced by wedding rings on their ring fingers. ("Because You Left") While sailing together in the Philippines aboard their yacht, Our Mutual Friend, Penny went into labor. Desmond searched out the nearest doctor, Efren Salonga, who helped birth their child, a son whom they named Charlie. ("Jughead")

2007 (Season 5)

Three years later, Desmond woke up from a dream about his time on the Island. In the dream, Daniel Faraday confronted him during his time in the Swan, warning him that everyone left on the Island was in danger, and that he must find his mother at Oxford University. Desmond ran onboard, only for Penny to follow him, confronting him about his recent dream. Desmond claimed it "was a memory", and told her they were going to Oxford. ("Because You Left")

A day or so after, Penny interrupted Desmond as he was talking about Great Britain to Charlie, saying that it was the place where Desmond broke her heart. Desmond told Penny that he had to find Daniel Faraday's mother. She questioned Desmond about why he didn't remember this three years ago when he got back from the Island, and Desmond did not have an answer. She had Desmond promise he would not go back to the Island, to which Desmond replied: "Why in God's name would I ever go back there?" Later, when Desmond came home, he lied to Penny and claimed that Faraday's mother had died. Penny in turn asked why he was lying. Desmond told her that since he promised their journey would be over after visiting Oxford, he would not pursue it any further. However, Penny said that she and Charlie would go with him to Los Angeles to find Faraday's mother. ("Jughead")

In a Long Beach marina, Penny was aboard her docked yacht when Benjamin Linus arrived to take revenge on her, as he had promised Charles Widmore. After shooting Desmond, he was prepared to kill Penny, but then her son Charlie emerged from the yacht's cabin. Surprised, Ben hesitated, allowing Desmond to beat him senseless and throw him into the water. ("Dead Is Dead")

When Desmond was rushed to the hospital, Penny and Charlie were left in the waiting room. She was approached by Eloise Hawking, who revealed that she knew Desmond, and that his injury was her son's fault and apologized for Daniel's actions. When Penny asked Eloise if Desmond would be all right, she said she did not know, and that for the first time in a long time, she didn't know what would happen next. Soon afterward, the nurse approached Penny and told her that Desmond was in the recovery ward and the surgery was successful. Penny visited Desmond, who reminded her of his promise that he would never leave her. ("The Variable")

2007 (Season 6)

Soon after Desmond was taken by Widmore and his team back to the Island, Penny and Charlie were taken to an unknown, yet secured location. ("Happily Ever After") On the Island, The Man in Black told her father the first thing he was going to do once he left the Island, was to kill Penny. He then gave Widmore his word that he would not hurt her once Widmore gave him the information he wanted to know. ("What They Died For") When Hugo "Hurley" Reyes assumed his position as protector of the Island and was confused about his duties, Benjamin Linus told him, "You can start by helping Desmond get home [to Penny and Charlie]". ("The End")

Penny in the church along with Desmond and their friends ready to move on. ("The End")

Penny met Desmond Hume at the stadium in Los Angeles on the evening of September 22, 2004. After he passed out in front of her, she agreed to meet him for coffee at a coffee shop on the corner of Sweetzer and Melrose. She was later seen at the church with Desmond meeting all of the other survivors. She later moved on with Desmond. ("The End")

Trivia

Penelope is one of 13 main characters not to have their name appear in a soundtrack title.

Actress Sonya Walger is one of six actors playing a recurring character who was given billing with the rest of the main cast for the only time in "The End".

She is the only actor out of the six not to have a speaking part in the episode.

Penny is one of only eight members of the main cast who were not given their own centric episode. The others being Charlotte, Frank, Libby, Pierre, Christian, Eloise, and Ilana, and along with Christian is the only main character never to experience a flash of any kind.

Penny and Christian are also the only main characters to have never set foot on the Island while alive. (Even then, Christian's corpse and casket arrived on the island after he died, and The Man in Black frequently took the form of him.)

In this regard, they are the opposite of The Man in Black - the only main character who never set foot off the island while alive.

Penelope presumably never met her paternal half-brother Daniel Faraday; yet her husband Desmond had met Daniel a few times, usually via time travel. Penelope did meet Daniel's mother; and her father's former lover, Eloise Hawking. Several years earlier, Eloise Hawking had previously urged a time traveling Desmond not to propose to Penelope in "Flashes Before Your Eyes".

Penelope is the only main character never to set foot on the Island during the course of the series.

Penelope has had three canonical surnames: Widmore, her birth name, Hume, her married name, and Milton, her birth name in the flash-sideways (presumably her mother's surname).

Penelope's appearance was a key moment in four of the six season finales. Her appearances in these finales coincide with the dramatic climax of each season:

In Greek mythology, Penelope was the faithful wife of Odysseus who awaited his return while he was lost at sea. She fended off 108 suitors by weaving a tapestry which she insisted must be completed before she would remarry. However, she unraveled her progress every night. The name has come to signify a loyal, capable, and clever woman. The name Penelope means "duck", but can also mean "thread".

In the flash sideways timeline she's called Penny Milton, presumably after her mother. John Milton was a 17th-century English poet and philosophical and political writer most famous for his epic poem Paradise Lost, which recounts the fall of the angel Lucifer from the grace of heaven to become Satan, the ruler of hell, and explores the theme of good versus evil.

Desmond wrote letters to Penny, which were intercepted by her father before she could read them. Lost also used this plot device with Michael, Susan and Walt.

Penny, along with Kate, Claire, Rose and Eloise Hawking, is one of only five female main characters alive at the end of the series, not counting the flash sideways.

Penny is one of the few main characters whose name wasn't seen on either Jacob's cave wall or the Lighthouse wheel, the others being Ana Lucia, Christian, Ilana, Frank, Libby, Bernard, Eloise, Richard and Ilana.